Quins run Rings round Titans

(Andy Hancock)
By Worried of Whitton
April 18 2004

As we reached match 20 in the 2003/2004 Zurich Premiership it appeared that most of the analogous, if not contrived, connections linking Rotherham and Titans had all been used. I struggled in vain for a snappy headline for this match report

Serendipity saved the day as the Harlequins team ably illustrated one of the dictionary definitions of Titan: It is indeed Saturn’s greatest satellite, and the NEC Harlequins certainly ran rings around the Titans this evening

Pre match the majority of the Quins supporters were expecting nothing less that a guaranteed five pointer, with a feast of tries. The management, however were far more cautious in their pre match assessment of the game, “there has been much talk of this being a five-point win for us. Well no team in the Premiership has achieved that against Rotherham for a long while and our sole intention will be to get the victory and the four points that will give us, but it will not be easy”. At the risk of repeating all the other match reporters this season, this was an important match for both clubs, as Quins strived to maintain their position in the top half of the table, and stay on track to finish fifth, whilst Rotherham were still looking for their first, elusive win of the season.

As the sun set on a balmy evening at the Stoop the Rotherham fly half Phil Jones kicked off towards the North stand. Quins won the ball but were immediately pinned inside their own 22 but they were awarded a scrum. The Rotherham pack were strong and won the ball, which they passed back out to Chris Jones. He kicked a cross field ball which was gratefully collected by George Harder who quickly offloaded to Greenwood, who then released Gavin Duffy for a stonking 60 metre sprint in front of the West stand for the try line and the first points of the evening.

Stonking (Andy Hancock)

Dunne duly converted and after only three minutes Quins were 7-0 up. Two minutes later Quins won a penalty in front of the post and Vos had no hesitation in pointing to the posts, and Dunne slotted the ball over another 3 points. From the restart Quins were back in attack but Rotherham continued to compete and were rewarded with a simple penalty kick to get their first points of the evening; 10 – 3. The game then went off the boil as Quins appeared to ease off the throttle and at times play became a little disjointed. With eighteen minutes on the clock Quins produced a fine rolling maul up the centre of the pitch. Dunne kicked an angled kick which was caught by Monye, whose deft footwork enabled him to bounce off two defenders and ground the ball under the posts. Dunne converted and Quins were 17 -3 ahead midway through the first half. The Titans however did not fold, they continued to be competitive in the line out and in the breakdown. Their persistence was eventually rewarded with a stylish kick forward, collect and pass by Stortoni who enabled to Pritchard too touch down to reduce the deficit and bring Rotherham back in to the game at 17-10 after half an hour of play.

Quins stepped up a gear and started to take control. They were clearly hungry for additional points before half time as the ball travelled through a series of passes back and forth across the field three times before a Rotherham infringement earned Quins another penalty close to the try line. Curiously Vos opted for a maul rather the other options that were open to him. The Titans had been strong in the scrum, throughout the first half but Quins had dominated in the mauls and therefore his decision was not that risky, and of course it did produce Quins third try of the evening when Ceri Jones was pushed over enabling Quins to increase their lead to. In final few minutes up to half time, Quins pressure continued as they sensed gaining a try bonus point before the whistle. Greenwood did release Monye, but he tripped and fell flat on his face. Intense open play in the middle of the field resulted in the evenings first injuries as both Fuga and Vos and Phil Jones for the Titans needed attention. Jones was substituted but Fuga and Vos, who had suffered a “dead leg”, were able to carry on. As the clocked ticked down there was a brief spat as fists flew after a scrum, but no action was taken.

Miall charges (Andy Hancock)

Half time.and with Quins ahead 24 – 10, the confident talk in the East Stand of how long would it be before we scored our fourth try, and who would score it.

Dunne kicked off the second half and from receiving the ball Rotherham were immediately on the attack, with Quins suddenly finding themselves defending their own try line. Good defence prevented a try, with Duffy clearing the lines, but a penalty was conceded and Rotherham gratefully accepted the three points that were on offer. 24 – 13. With Quins back on the attack they were awarded another penalty however Dunne was not able secure any points from this kick. Play continued and the 4,758 crowd did not have to wait any longer when Andy Dunne collected the ball and was pushed out wide to streak across the line for his second try of the evening and more importantly that precious bonus point. Dunne missed the conversion but by now it looked as if the game was won. Quins pressure continued a long crossfield kick form Dunne found Harder who passed out to Monye whose route to the tryline was blocked, the ball was played out by a series of passes to the other wing and back cross field again. I missed exactly what happened next (due to spectator traffic!) but I was aware that a fifth try had been scored by Ceri Jones who appears to be chasing the title of most prolific try scorer this season.

Jones (Andy Hancock)

With Dunne kicking the conversion, Quins were home and dry at 36-13 mid way through the second half. This seemed to be acknowledged by the bench as Quins made a number of substitutions mindful of resting weary players prior to next weeks match in Galway. Disappointingly, Jones was one of those substituted I felt sure he was up for a hat trick! as Worsley and Gomez replaced the front row. Vos was replaced by Sherriff as he was suffering from the knock he received in the first half. Willis replaced Harder and took over scrum half duties as Keogh moved to the vacant wing. Greenwood was also replaced by Taumalolo. Following the substitutions and the game won Quins started to put on an exhibition with some fine displays of passing, yet they still maintained their strong defence to prevent Rotherham from scoring again. At times the play was almost frantic. Rotherham repelled another attack, and ran back at Quins but ran out of steam as they crossed the half way line. Following a line out won by Quins a wayward pass was lost and a tenacious Willis charged back determined to reclaim the ball, which he did. The ball passed out to Bell, who feed it out to Duffy who crossed the line for his second try of the evening . Dunne converted and Quins were 43 -13.

Bell rests (Andy Hancock)

With the game nearly over, Cameron Dott replaced a very tired Fuga, and I believe this may have been his premiership debut at home. From the restart there was just one more chance for Rotherham to get some more points and they swarmed down the pitch determined to score which they duly did with the last play of the match with Wood touching down and Benson converting.

Final Score: NEC Harlequins 43 – Rotherham Titans 20.

Coincidently this was a very similar result to the match up at Millmoor in September when Quins were victors 43 -15, however, this was a very different Rotherham team today. Full of Yorkshire grit they never gave up and were rewarded with a late try, when they never looked like scoring again. They played competitively throughout the match but too often made elementary mistakes at crucial times. Their lineout was good as was their scrum, they were able to break our lines on occasions, but in the end they were beaten by the pace of the Harlequins team. So Rotherham have yet to pick up a Premiership win, let us hope do us a favour and achieve one next week at Leicester!

Commenting on the Rotherham team after the match Mark Evans said he had been watching Rotherham for some time and had seen great improvements in their game. “Bits of it are pretty good, but it is difficult to build a team in one season unless who have a whole lot of money and even then you cannot be sure” (was this a reference to Worcester?) .He added you have to build a team from the front, Rotherham’s scrum is good and, compared to earlier this season, their line-out is out of sight, they have good offloading and good at breaking through, but they have not a got a finisher, and you need two or three. Three to four years ago we had the same problem here at Quins, and those sorts of people are not here now!”

A very buoyant, smiling and joking Mark Evans went on to discuss our Premiership position. Back in February after picking up 8 points from 3 tough away games at Gloucester, Sale and Newcastle he was confident of a top three finish. However after loosing three games away to Wasps “it still hurts “, and to Leicester twice put paid to that goal, but a fifth in league is still achievable with two games to go. In the previous three seasons finishing 11th, 9th, and 7th, finishing 5th would be “a tangible symbol of our continuing progress”

I queried whether there were any injury worries after tonight’s game only Vos had picked up knock, but Burke, Sanderson and Hayter would all be fit to play, if selected.

Quite rightly Dunne picked up man of the match and although I've criticised Duffy in the past I thought he played with a lot more confidence tonight. Both of them seemed to have connected with their kicking game this week which was a delight to see long may it continue. Bell, Harder and Horstmann were also impressive, and whilst Greenwood was not as good as last Sunday he too, had a good game. The whole team tonight were playing with a renewed spirit. After all this was the squad’s third win this week, beating Connacht, and the “A’s” beating Northampton, with a combined try count of fourteen.

With confidence on a high the multi coloured shirts now head west to Galway, past those low-lying Fields of Athenry, to meet Connacht in the second leg of the Parker Pen Cup Semi Final. This is set to be a “craic_ing” match, Come on you Quins!